Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early Top 10 Tight Ends, Fantasy News

to be reliable, but those are the arguments for and against him. Now, the next guy on our list, uh, now Jason had Barnage and Travis Kelsey 5-6 in his rankings, and Kelsey is the next one on our list at number five. However, Mike and I have Barnage and Kelsey inverse. Ooh. He has Kelsey 8, Barnage 3. I have Barnage 8, Kelsey 3. Um,

So let's talk about Travis Kelsey. He disappointed on expectations last year, but he didn't really have a bad season. He's a product of an offense that sometimes utilizes him and sometimes doesn't. He was 72 for 875 and 5. I think I projected him for about 80 catches in 1,000 yards and going up by a touchdown this year that just happened to drop him at number 3 in my rankings. What are your guys' thoughts on Travis Kelsey? Mike, why is he 8 for you? I'm more curious why, like,

you're projecting him to go up to 1,000 yards. What is your thought process behind that? I just think that Travis Kelsey's utilization varied for no other reason than the defense being so incredibly good over the last half of the season. Their defense and that run that they went on, it was a defense oriented. They didn't have to pass the ball a lot. And so I think that's why you saw a decline in his total production towards the end of the year.

I think that their defense has lost some pieces in this past year. We know what's going on with Houston and their safeties. I just think that means that they're involved in a little bit more passing games. And you're talking about an increase in catches that I've projected at eight. Yeah. So I have no problem with them utilizing him. Wait, you have him at... I think I have him at 80 catches. For a thousand yards? Yeah. So I have his yards per catch going up. Yeah. A pretty decent chunk. It could happen. Look, I still... I just would want to take a pause real quick and just say how happy I am.

From a human being perspective to now sit and watch Mike, who was Mr. Zeus, Travis Kelsey, man, badmouth him. Continue. No, no, no. You will not catch me badmouthing, Travis Kelsey, because I still love the player. Zeus is a monster. It's just I don't think that the chiefs are going to...

to bump him up to that level where he can become, he can stay in the elite because of volume. I think that he is one of the best tight ends in the league. He's just not getting the appropriate targets. And I blame Andy Reid for that. Well, that's an easy one to blame because if you've got a superstar and you've got Andy Reid, it's... I never blame Travis Kelsey for anything. No. And so I think Andy brings up one of the best points that we need to keep in mind.

The defense, just like we talked about with DeAndre Hopkins and the wide receivers, the defense for the Kansas City Chiefs who were lights out unbelievable second half of the year were not that way in the beginning of the season. And that made an impact on their offense because one of the things that worried me with Kelsey was the downtrend of his stats. You look at his year and you go, he had a fine year. He had enough catches, enough yards, enough touchdowns. You look at game one.

And in the first game of the year, he had... I felt good, man. He had six after week one. Six for 106 and two. Two of his five touchdowns. You know, I mean, a giant chunk. And then from there, it kept going down and down and down. So the trend does not look good for Kelsey. All three of us love... I mean, you want to talk about an elite guy. I think if you're talking just physical talent, you go gronk, then you go Kelsey. I think Kelsey is the second most talented...

tight-in in the NFL from a physical capability. He still was at 100 targets last year. You know, you talked about the artists per catch changing. I think I have him at 12.3. He did 12.9 his rookie year, 12.2 last year. So it's not much of a difference. And he played 16 games both years, which is something that, hey, Jordan Reed, Rob Gonkowski, I'd like to have that from my tight end. I just think that he could end up in ADP value because of all the hype last year, the disappointment, depending on where he goes.

I like him. And again, we're debating a small amount of point differential. But I do have them pretty high, especially because in my rankings, I have them higher than Jordan Reed, which I think is going to surprise some people. I also like, and maybe they won't be serviceable this year for fantasy purposes, but I like what I saw out of Albert Wilson and Chris Conley. I think that the wide receivers are finally catching up to speed.

I like Albert Wilson. I agree with you on that. All right. We need to start cruising here. We got Greg Olson coming in at number six in our consensus rankings. I owe an apology to Jason. The grunt of disappointing. Jason Moore for this one. Look, this is our biggest travesty.

Last year, 77 for 11004 yards and seven touchdowns. In fact, last year, besides Grunk and Jimmy Graham, he's the first tight end with over 1,100 receiving yards in a season since Antonio Gates did it back in 2009 with 1157. This is something where I am responsible for this ranking. Jason has him at 3. Very fairly appropriately. I think I'm a 9, which is just too low. I probably need to move them up. That being said, this is, you know,

This is the Julius Thomas effect a little bit where you had this season for Denver, right, a couple of years ago, where every number was a record-studding number. You had Sanders' record-setting numbers, Julius Thomas' record-setting numbers. They put up this offense. I'm not projecting Carolina's offense to do what it did last year. No. And I'm not projecting them to be in such dire straits at the wide receiver position next year to where we are looking at that level of production from Olson. And so he's moved down a little bit to me.

I have him at 73 for 8, 16, and 6. Yeah, I don't, I don't. So there's, their wide receivers are going to be better. Their offense is going to be worse. I agree completely. I think if we look two years ago, when Greg Olson finished fourth, had one less touchdown, 100 less yards, he was still.

The fourth best tied in. And when you want consistency, he is my, I will tell you right now, the guy I want the most in the draft on my teams is actually Greg Olson, even more than Kobe Fleener, because I know what I get, I know what I have week in, week out. And you want to talk consistency. I mean, we just talked about the injury risk for other guys. Let me read you just, just, just, just the past few years of Greg Olson's games played. 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16.

And he plays like every snap. He's a beast. So I kind of like that. What are the odds that Greg Olson would ever give you double-digit touchdowns? Has he ever done that? No, he's never done that. Which is funny you bring that up. He's like, he's great. I'm not arguing, but that's a piece of the puzzle to me. And it's funny you bring that up because I was just going to talk about Cam Newton through 35 touchdowns. That was his best season by 11 touchdowns. Right. And what did Olson have seven? Seven.

One more than the year before. Yeah. So if he ends up with five, which is about where I have him, then standard leagues, he'll be more of an issue for you. But he's great. There's not really a debate there. The artist's consistency is fantastic, but if he got up into the 9-10 touchdowns would be, that would be more surprising than not to me. All right. We'll go ahead and move on. Zach Ertz comes in at number seven. Get out the flamethrower. Let me put this camera on you, Andy. You can just have the platform.

All right, we're moving on from Zach. We're on to number eight. Is the Kelly drop on the soundboard? Which one? This is a very appropriate time. My mind's telling me no. I have Zachards very high. How high, Andy? Technically number two. Oh, that's a fire. I have Zachert's essentially. Technically speaking. Technically speaking, I have him tied with, look, it took everything in me not to just like adjust.

one tenth of a point on a touchdown to drop him to four, because that's how close he is with Kelsey and Reed to me. But look, he still, I don't know if you know this. He had a 75 catch year. He had 850 plus yards. He had more average receptions per game than Grankowski and Olson. And he's been paid and he's coming into his own as a tight end.

I probably got him too high. Here's the truth. But I love Zachert. I like Zacherts a lot. When I was standing him out, I see a lot of reason for improvement. He is great. And when I finished, I thought, oh, I'm pretty high on him. I think I was seven. And so, you know, I was like, oh, I was surprised he was up that high. Honestly, I don't have a problem where he is in our consensus rankings. I think seven after the group of titles we talked about.

Yeah, so he's good. He's going to be used. You guys are telling me that, let me ask, let me put it this way, because I'm going to sort by your rankings, Jay. I actually got nothing wrong with yours, so I'm going to look at mics. Okay. That sounds about right. I am the champ. So Delaney Walker, Zacherts, that's really the one that I'm curious about. Yeah, that's, that's interesting because Walker basically had a full outlier.

of a season, and the Titans have, they've added a piece in Richard Matthews, Doriel Green Beckham, I think should take a step forward. And don't forget, Kendall Wright. Sure, yeah, Kendall Wright was beat up most of the year, and he's still young, a good talent. So that's, actually, I have Walker and Ertz 9 and 10. I would say that the upside is there for Ertz compared to Walker. If you're talking a guy who could actually sneak into the top five,

this year. It would be more Ertz to me, but that's why I got them in that same range. I'm just not sold. And that's fine. And the problem with Earth is a million percent to do with touchdowns. He just hasn't put them up. You got the West Coast offense there with a new head coach that uses the tight-in position. I just personally, I see the potential for the volume to be there. I believe over his last half. Okay, this is not just taking a couple games. Week 9 on.

His pace was about 105 receptions. Spectacular. And so it's a hot take, I admit. Maybe it's part of an awareness campaign for Zach Ertz on my behalf. I will also say this. If you watched the Philadelphia games, there were so many games where Zach Ertz was open in the end zone, targeted wide open and missed. It was uncanny. It's something that you just can't repeat. So he should have had at least three more touchdowns on that year.

And so you just give him that, and he's pumped away. My biggest question for Andy, if Zach Ertz is doing so well, how is Nelson Aguilar going to catch all those passes? He won't. That's the problem. All right. Number eight, Tyler Eifer, last year's darling, 13 touchdowns. And if you only look at that, you love him. But 52 for 615 otherwise, which is just really a low total. He had some injury issues.

You had an interesting stat looked up by one of Alex, one of the guys that helps us with some research. This was impressive to me. I mean, in 2013, you saw Vernon Davis, who put up 52 receptions, just like Iford did. Seriously? With 32, I'm sorry, with 13 touchdowns. So Vernon Davis had the same totals with 13 touchdowns, and obviously it was a very hot pick. There's nothing to say, you know, you have some arguments for Eifert. If he stays healthy, you had a very good offense.

And you have the loss of Sunu and Marvin Jones in the offense. Marvin Jones is a really good red zone weapon. Or Eiffert should be the number two target in that offense now. Odds that he repeats the identical season. What would you put that out? Ooh. Or better yet, over under on that 13 touchdowns, do you think that? Oh, I'm taking the under. Yeah, I'll take the under. What about over under 10 for Eifert? Over.

So you still have him pretty... I think he'll get double digits. Okay. I think that's very... I think 10 is where I think is fair. I want to look what I actually gave. Which makes me want to see what I projected him for, yeah. Tyler Eifford, I gave him 10. So right on the button. Yeah, I guess over under, I was just thinking over under double digits. Yeah, I would... If it's double digits, I would lean over. So the worry, the basic story, you've heard us talk about him a lot. The basic story is just, in a standard league, I don't really mind Eifford at all.

In any form of point per reception, half or full, you have some issues because he gave you games where he was great, scored, and then he had 52 receptions. I mean, you're talking about that's, you're getting close to half of what Jordan Reed had at that point. Or Delaney Walker, you're almost actually there. So that's the problem with Eifford. It's not a huge problem. You'd like to have a guy that has a track record of scoring. That's fine. I expect the catches. This isn't Zach Rudolph. Or I mean, Kyle Rudolph.

Or Zach Rudolph, whoever that is. I expect the catches and the yards to go up and the touchdowns to come. Like, well, we're just going to smash, smash that stat line, make it a little more reasonable. Well, you'd be really happy with him then, if that's the case. Yeah, and I would. I'd be happy with it. We've got to say this again and again and again and again and again on this episode because you cannot go into your drafting and all, I've got to get this guy or that guy at the tight end position, or you're making a mistake and we don't want our listeners to make a mistake. I would love to have Tyler Eifford on my team.